Monday, April 27, 2009

Hello everyone! Hope your week is off to a great start-even if it IS Monday! ha! Here is a picture of a day in the life of a Ryan sheep- and Andrew the Great Pyrenees who has to 'put up with' his sheep! That is Sunshine the black Shetland on top of the bale, not long after I snapped this picture, her twin Mario joined her- and then a huge game of king of the bale followed! Andy can't believe his eyes! ;0)

This is another pair of sheep that made a great picture perfect! On left (white sheep) is Devlyn, Jim's Scottish Black Face Sheep- on right is Angus, my little Shetland buddy. They are very good friends- and right after this picture, Devlyn gave Angus a head butt to the hinder, and they ran off to play tag..... No rest for the silly right? Is that how the saying goes???

The sheep just finished updating the websitetoo- lots of delicious roving, clouds, locks and more- be sure to stop by! Above picture is 'Sultry Garden' created by our Rudy sheep (with carding help from Shari of Morro Fleece Works)

Pinks and purples are a wonderful pair for a Sock Hop! Soft and slinky Huacaya Alpaca fiber from our friend Jen's happy Alpacas- washed/dyed by the sheeps.

And last but not least, our Cosmo's locks- two colorways, this is Mystery Cove!

We have a lot more fiber on the way for the site, and the sheep are making progress on the fleece reservation list too- yey sheep! Hope your week goes well and look forward to hearing from you when you have time! Cheerio!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Buenas Crapas you say? That is putting it mildly.... Now, would this sweet sheep (Cosmo) do ANYthing naughty? That is a big fat YES. Really. In fact, almost every sheep here is naughty today- actually a little beyond. All proud of myself for rolling out of bed early (7 am) again, all ready to get the day moving. Sat down at the computer and the phone rang- neighbors said sheep were out- in our newly growing hayfield??? WHAT THE @@###?

And they were correct- about NINETY sheep and their leader Dalai Llama were out having some breakfast. Not like we don't feed the sneaks, they just don't want hay- they see green grass that is not quite ready for them. Ugh. Need warmer weather and a bit of regular nice rain so the grass can get a good start- hopefully soon- our hay budget is shrinking....

SO, how long does it take to round up 90 sheep and an uncooperative llama? Well, it is 10 am and here I finally am. The sheep tattle on themselves- that part always cracks me up. They will all come running right back in the hole they made in our fence. Saves us time finding out how they escaped. However, there are always a few stinkers that absolutely insist on being elusive- and won't follow. They are exhausting! Namely Sweet Pea, Samuel, Willow- despite Devlyn's repeated trips through the fence to lead them back. Now he is a smart little sheep but even HE gave up! Honkey donkey Casper got in the action too, he stood in front of the area around the hole in the fence, chasing sheep away that tried to get back out. What a freaking exhausting day and it is hardly even started.....

Those sheep are very lucky I will always love them-and that they are so stinking cute! Come on pasture!!!! ;0)

Our first prize winner is Faun D- and her sheepy present will be on its way this week. The sheep are emailing each of the participants today- so be sure to check your email later on!

As you can see, the sheep were probably scheming up this contest before shearing- don't they look all secret-y here? Stinkers! I know they enjoyed this contest so much that I am hearing rumblings of another one in the works soon-- be sure to keep an eye out! look forward to hearing from you- oh, also have our crashed/fixed computer home today- and wa-la, can receive email and not send? grrrrr. SO, keep emailing us if you need to, I can answer them and get them sent out as soon as Jim gets back home- he is my techno hero! ;0) Thank you again everyone and hope you had fun!!!!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

It's contest time sheeples! This first picture is not part of the contest though- everyone wanted in on the act- including Sonny's giant nose! He is a smooch-but this was not a 'proper' photo for the contest- I promised he could be the surprised looking sheep at the top of the page! tee hee!

Here's the name of this game:

Name the Naked Sheep Contest

(wasn't there a song that went something like 'who's that sheep?' Or was it girl?)

*contest starts now :0)

*there are 5 different sheep pictured below -the first person to correctly name all five is the winner- and wins a surPRIZE from the sheep.

*The next 4 people that correctly name the 5 sheep will receive 10% off their next sheepy order!

*All contest emails must be sent to the sheep at the farm address: ryan3 (at) tds (dot) NET (sorry for being unable to print our own email! eek!)

*please let the sheep know if you knit/crochet or spin

Contest ends as soon as we have the 5 winners or Saturday April 25, whichever gets here first. The sheep will keep you up to date here on the blog. ALSO, if that were not enough (sounds like the sham wow guy huh?), the sheep are adding a picture to Flickr and Ravelry (there are links to the sheep's pages/groups on the side of the blog) that will be 'bonus' guesses- don't have to get them right but if you DO get them, would mean some extra surPRIZE fun! they won't be easy- be sure to take a look!Remember to take a look at the website- we had a really fun update this weekend! On your mark, get set, GO!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Yahoo and giddy up! The sheep are done a little early with tonight's update! Bet they are a drinking some strawberry daquiris-and once again, no invite for me-boohoo. Lots of pretties on the site today, be sure to browse about- the fleece shown above is from our Cosmo sheep.... Roving is a Homestead Gathering of sorts- several sheep got carried away on fiber to the mill day- what a happy blend, and their colorway choice is a great one for spring.

Even had time to get a few batts on the site- go Crazy Quilt for your next project!

And as promised, the sheep will be launching their 'Name the Naked Sheep' contest Sunday afternoon. Don't miss out- they have lots of fun planned and great surPRIZES too! bwaaahahahahaha!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Happy Thursday everyone! The sheep are busy working on fiber for tomorrow's update, thinking it will be ready for you later in the day. Lots of new pretties- including Crazy Quilt batts! They have been busy busy sheeps.

They are also getting their new contest set up- more info tomorrow. All the fun will get started on Sunday. The only clue they will allow tonight is that the contest will somehow involve 'naked sheep'- oooh la la and oh my! Stay tuned and stop back tomorrow! ;0)

Sunday, April 12, 2009

This is a picture of our little Cosmo- when eh was a baby- always a sass when the camera is on that is for sure! (there is a surgical staple under his right eye- he was born with an eyelid that rolled in, with out the correction he would have gone blind) Thought it was a pretty cute picture of the day.... Hope you all had a fun weekend, full of family, good food and of course- fiber!

We are working from our old computer- be careful on the Internet! Our new computer crashed yesterday and is at Geek Squad so they can retrieve ALL our files. Ugh. At least we have this one to work on- but it is all hand writing- look out for your receipts! Might want to save your emails because I can't even get the printer to work. Never ends.

I hope scammers/hackers can find a better way to channel their innate ability/happiness about creating havoc and making others miserable--SOOON. What the ****? Sad that there is no other way to use what could be a talent.... maybe in computer security???

Anyhoo, hope all is well, our updatewill most likely be on Wednesday again so keep an eye out and look forward to hearing from you when you have time. Check out our links here too, the sheep love Twitter, Flickr and Ravelry -and would enjoy seeing you there! Toodles Peeps!

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Howdy do everyone! From the land of naked sheep-who want less wind and more WARM! Got any to spare? hee hee. Been getting back to my spinning and got some nice pictures- so here they are. I splurged and purchased the batts from my friend Jazzturtle Creates - be sure to check out her shop- LOTs of wonderful fiber and yarn- she is a good friend of the sheep! There are two kinds of batts, the front are her Treasure Chest batts- and they are definitely that! Full of fiber that just pops out at you as you spin. Color, texture and goodies- yum! The batt at the top of the picture is the exact opposite- all sleek, shiny and smooth- I decided to combine the batts and this is the in progress shot. I have a secret plan in mind for this yarn so stay tuned! Thank you for your creative batts Jazzturtle!!!

These are Wensleydale locks I am spinning for a yarn shop- yum. The colors are so pretty all together- and yep, have to spin it ALL. Shucky darn. PS- these sheep live in a heated barn??? Don't tell our sheep, they might pack up their little hobo bandanas and leave! bwaaahahahaha!

Lash yarn in progress (above)

And drum rolllll palease! Mini coils spun on my Kromski Symphony wheel? What has the world come to- mini art yarn? Took me two entire afternoons to get 20 yards done. Ugh. That was just the coil part, not counting spinning the single ply. Do not know how all you spinners keep cranking this yarn out!

In the past, this style has never worked out for me- the yarn always fell apart when I skeined it up. This one did not fall apart at that point, but am not sure it won't when I knit it- going to do a test run before I offer any of this yarn-eek. It is spun from a blend of our Merino cross boys that came from Pennsylvania a while back...

Happy fiber/yarn funeveryone, hope all is well and look forward to seeing you! Toodles!

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Wow, what an update- just finished up after 5 straight hours-and the sheep, they skipped after the pictures were taken- stinkers! Kind of out of words so picture update here for now. Lots of dyed, washed and unwashed wool, roving too! Our Keebler's Lamb fleece - help me bust my stash pleeeeaase? New shearing is here and I need to get my stash under control- but does that ever happen??? ha!

Monday, April 06, 2009

OK, OK, most of you have heard enough of my whining about our down right COLD freakin weather since shearing day- but the naked sheep are actually using naughty words now! Eek! I had to edit this post heavily-they are not happy campers. They HATE being locked inside but I tell them it is too bad for them that someone loves them enough to do so. Right? When they DO get out to stretch their legs (when we put their feed inside-otherwise it is like a football team gone mad-and you in the middle of the tackle) they just stand outside the door fussing-or running around like goofy sheep to stay warm. Then they come in and give me the evil eye for locking the door behind them. Big circle. AND, why am I the one playing the guilt card on myself??? Guess if you know me, that is part of my 'charm' (?) and one of the things I do best! Tee hee! Poor poor sheepies....

I am finally back to work, last week was a slooow moving Sandy after the marathon of shearing. David the wonder shearer did a fantastic job, and I was happy to see that our sheep actually cooperated with the clean fleece mandate- or at least most of them. We did have a few stinkers that are on my list to go over the rules with every year though.

I am sorting fleeces all day today and taking pictures for our update, which will be tomorrow- gonna be a big one with lots of goodies. Those of you with fleeces reserved will be hearing from me soon so we can make arrrangements- will take some time to get to all of you, only the best fleeces for our friends. Also, we still have plenty of wool to go around, email the sheep if you want to add your name to the reservations! Chow!